Scouts honor ‘distinguished’ Fox Valley leaders

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Dan Rigby is being honored as a community leaders by the Three Fires Council of the Boy Scouts.

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Updated: December 18, 2011 5:22PM

The Boy Scouts of America look for certain qualities in role models — leadership, citizenship, commitment to youth in their communities.

On Wednesday, the Scouts Three Fires Council honored three leaders for displaying those traits at the annual Distinguished Citizen Luncheon at the Hotel Arista in Naperville.

“Scouting is a community-based organization that relies on community-minded people,” said Matt Ackerman, Scout executive for the Three Fires Council.

About 130 people attended the luncheon.

The 2011 Distinguished Citizen honoree is Daniel Rigby, president/CEO of Human Resource Management Systems in Naperville. Past recipients of the award include U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and former Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson.

“The values of Scouting are what will save this country,” Rigby said.

Besides being a business leader, Rigby is active in his community and participates on industry association committees and civic organizations.

The 2011 Distinguished Corporate award was given to Gerard Dempsey of Batavia Enterprises, while the Whitney M. Young Jr. Service Award was given to Anthony Franklin of Aurora, a public safety systems manager of information technologies at the Kane County Sheriff’s Department.

Batavia Enterprises, founded 52 years ago, has left a corporate imprint in the heart of downtown Batavia.

“I would like to think we are a viable member of the community,” Dempsey said.

Batavia Enterprises built the first shopping center in downtown Batavia in 1962. The development led the way in the transformation of the downtown from vacant industrial buildings to retail shops and restaurants.

The company’s success is partly attributed to their “customer service philosophy” which values each customer as a business partner, he said.

“We focus on helping the emerging entrepreneur, since that is how we started more than 50 years ago,” Dempsey said.

Today, the company has buildings and property that extend throughout the Fox Valley, Sugar Grove, Elburn, West Chicago and as far as Rockford.

The firm is also known for its community support for the Boy Scouts and the annual ACCESS Toy Drive in Batavia. Dempsey has also been active in civic and community projects, as well as organizations. His three sons were all involved in Scouting as children.

Franklin is a national director of Scouting for the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which has 2,000 churches worldwide.

He, too, has left his imprint on the Aurora community.

Kane County Sheriff Pat Perez said law enforcement turned to Franklin to help Mutual Ground, the Aurora shelter for victims of domestic abuse, update its computer system.

“We saw how the system was not interconnected and they didn’t have money for upgrades. We talked to Tony about it and he made it a Boy Scouts project, and now they have system that is operationally light years ahead,” Perez said.